Babies and Basketball
by Nonnie
Summary: Pure fun fluff - The girls go out for an afternoon of pampering, leaving the boys to watch Nicholas during the Big East Conference basketball tournament, pitting Tim’s beloved Syracuse Orangemen against the University of Miami Hurricanes


Disclaimer - I don't own these characters, including Tim Speedle (sigh), but hey, a girl can dream, can't she?  
  
Pairings - Tim/Leanna, Eric/Valera, Horatio/Calleigh  
  
Rating – PG-13 for a little bit of language. You know how guys are when they get together!  
  
Summary – The girls go out for an afternoon of pampering, leaving the boys to watch Nicholas during the Big East Conference basketball tournament, pitting Tim's beloved Syracuse Orangemen against the University of Miami Hurricanes.  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~* ~*~*~*~*~*~*  
  
Tim answered the persistent knocker at the front door, tossing it open while keeping Nicholas securely cradled in the crook of his left arm.  
  
"You ready to lose big?" Eric asked with a grin, pushing past Tim with his arms full of beer and snacks.  
  
"Only thing I'm going to lose is more respect for Miami basketball," Tim shot back, much to Nicholas' delight, who gurgled happily in his father's strong arms.  
  
Eric ignored the comment and sat the beer in the refrigerator, turning back to the kitchen counter to unload the bags of snacks he'd just bought at the grocery store. Tim sauntered in, clad in a navy blue t-shirt with bright orange letters plastered across the front. Eric shook his head, directing his attention to Nicholas, whose onesie matched his father's t-shirt. "Leanna know about that?" he motioned to Nicholas.  
  
"No, I changed him after she left," Tim answered quickly. "She had him dressed in his Georgia Bulldogs outfit."  
  
Eric laughed heartily. "Well, we sure as hell can't have that."  
  
"Hell no," Tim responded, taking a swig of the beer he'd just opened. "There shall be no love for the SEC in this house."  
  
"At least not during basketball season," Horatio said from the hallway, kicking the open front door shut with his foot and making his way quickly into the kitchen. "Move," he commanded Eric, "this is hot."  
  
"I'll get out of the way if you promise that Calleigh made that," Eric answered, stepping away from the counter and pointing to the crock-pot Horatio was carrying.  
  
"Are you implying that my wife makes better cheese dip than I do?" Horatio asked, taking his godson away from Tim.  
  
"Yes," Tim and Eric answered in unison.  
  
"Hmmph," Horatio scoffed, holding Nicholas up. "Hi there buddy, you just get bigger every day."  
  
"I wouldn't do that if I were you," Tim warned, just before Nicholas released a load of spit up all over Horatio. Eric and Tim both winced at the sight. They'd both been spit up on enough to last a couple of lifetimes.  
  
Horatio glanced down at his t-shirt, now covered with the remnants of Nicholas' latest meal. He handed the infant back to Tim with a frown. "A little warning would have been nice."  
  
Tim snickered. "Not my fault the kid doesn't like Miami either." He handed Horatio a wet washcloth. "If you can live with the smell, this will take the stain out."  
  
"Game time!" Eric called from the living room, adjusting the volume on Tim's beloved big-screen television. Tim carried Nicholas into the living room, sitting down in his black leather recliner and propping his feet up, settling his son onto his stomach.  
  
"Look at that cool orange color, Nick," Tim pointed to the Syracuse Orangemen's brightly colored uniforms. "Orange is our favorite color, isn't it Mini-me?" Nicholas smiled, beating his little arms and legs back against Tim's chest.  
  
"Hey, we have orange too," Eric defended of the Miami Hurricanes, who were just about to face off with Syracuse in the Big East Basketball Conference Tournament.  
  
"Yeah, but Miami's orange is ugly," Tim responded with a grin.  
  
"It's the same damn color, you moron!"  
  
"Gentlemen," Horatio said with a warning tone, "Tip-off."  
  
"That's it, that's it," Eric said with a nod, "Miami got the ball."  
  
Tim rolled his eyes, "They won't have it for long."  
  
"Are you going to be this annoying the whole game?" Eric asked.  
  
"I'm not annoying, I'm confident. We've already beat Miami once, won't be hard to do it again."  
  
Just then, Syracuse forward Hakim Warrick stole the rebound from Miami guard Eric Wilkins. Warrick was down the court, slamming the ball into the basket before the guys could even blink.  
  
"Damn it!" Eric screamed, flopping down onto the couch.  
  
"You take this way too seriously," Tim teased.  
  
Delko shot Tim a nasty look. "Screw you, I've got a lot of money on this game."  
  
"And that my boy, is Hakim Warrick, our leading scorer," Tim told Nicholas, raising the infant's arms over his head in celebration.  
  
Minutes passed, and before they knew it, the first half of the ballgame was over, with Syracuse leading Miami 32-28. Tim gloated, Eric pouted and Nicholas slept, clearly not as interested in basketball as his father and uncles.  
  
"Man, I wish I could sleep like he does," Tim marveled, lifting Nicholas gently from his chest. "This kid can fall asleep anywhere, anytime, anyhow."  
  
"The life of a baby," Eric shook his head. "Somebody to feed you, rock you, take care of your every need."  
  
Tim and Horatio looked at one another, both fighting the grins threatening to erupt on their faces.  
  
"What?" Eric asked curiously, surveying the strained looks on the men's faces.  
  
With that, Tim and Horatio broke into a fit of laughter, waking Nicholas in the process.  
  
"I hate you both," Eric stated. "Why the hell do I come over here?"  
  
Tim scooped Nicholas up and placed the screaming baby on his shoulder. "Because I have a big screen, and face it, you love us."  
  
"I do not, and Valera does not treat me like a baby," Eric argued, following Tim into Nicholas' nursery.  
  
"You keep believing that, Delko," Tim answered, laying Nicholas on his changing table. "What's the matter, Mini-me?" He popped the buttons of Nick's onesie and opened his diaper cautiously, shaking his head as he surveyed the damage. "Dude, you're supposed to wait until your mother gets home to do that, we had a deal."  
  
Nicholas kicked his legs happily as a reply. Tim grinned despite himself and grabbed a new diaper from the wicker basket in the changing table. He cleaned Nick off and handed the dirty diaper to Eric. "Make yourself useful."  
  
Eric rolled his eyes and deposited it into the diaper genie, twisting the top to seal in the smell. "Thank God for these things," Eric mused.  
  
"Yeah, I wouldn't keep the kid if I had to do the whole cloth diaper thing like my mother did," Tim answered, snapping Nick's onesie back together. "All right," he asked Nicholas, "what's next, bud? You hungry?"  
  
Nicholas smiled widely and gurgled a reply, thrilled with the attention he was receiving from his father. "Food it is," Tim said, scooping Nicholas up and cradling him in one arm.  
  
"You carry him like he's a football," Eric teased.  
  
"He loves it, so don't knock it. This is Daddy's special way to carry his Mini-me around."  
  
"You've become such a sap since he was born," Eric shook his head.  
  
Tim stopped in the middle of the hallway. "I'm the sap? You're the one who's wife makes him lunch every day with a little love note tucked inside."  
  
"It's sweet," Eric countered, grinning instinctively, "She does that because she loves me."  
  
"Yeah, but you don't have to write them back, jackass," Tim eyed him.  
  
Eric blushed furiously; pink spreading across his dark complexion. "I don't," he managed to stammer.  
  
Tim laughed. "Dude, your wife and my wife are friends. Val tells Lea, Lea comes home and sweetly reminds me that the only love notes I ever write her are on birthday, anniversary or Valentine's Day cards. You're giving the rest of us a bad name."  
  
Horatio spoke up as the two men re-entered the living room. "Yeah, I've been meaning to talk to you, too. Calleigh's been all over my ass for weeks about that."  
  
"And," Tim added quickly, "Mike Woods is going to kick your ass the next time he sees you."  
  
"What?" Eric asked, his mouth hanging open from shock, "Why?"  
  
"Let me put it this way – he's not here."  
  
Eric shook his head in confusion. "What's your point?"  
  
"Alexx thought your little note-writing thing was so romantic, she dragged Mike away for the weekend," Tim said, adding for emphasis, "to a resort with no television in the weeks leading up to the Final Four."  
  
"Ouch," Eric shook his head again, feeling Mike's pain from missing the tournaments. "Well, I can't very well stop writing them now."  
  
"That's fine," Tim answered quickly, retrieving a pot from the kitchen cabinet and filling it with water. He sat it on the stove and turned the burner on. "Just don't do anything else sickeningly romantic, okay?"  
  
"Yeah," Eric nodded emphatically. "Point taken."  
  
"Guys," Horatio called from the living room. "Game's back on."  
  
Eric opened the refrigerator door. "H, you want another beer?"  
  
"Uh-huh," he answered, tossing a handful of peanuts into his mouth and settling back onto the couch.  
  
Eric took three beers out the refrigerator, sitting one down instinctively in front of Tim. "Gracias," Tim replied, popping the top, then sitting Nicholas' bottle into the pot. "A drink for Daddy and a drink for Nick."  
  
"You want me to take him for a minute?" Eric asked.  
  
"Yeah, thanks," Tim answered, handing Nicholas over.  
  
"Hey, hey, hey, my man, let's go watch some b-ball," Eric said sweetly, rubbing Nicholas' tummy and getting a gurgled response. He walked quickly into the living room, winking at Horatio before carrying Nicholas back into his room. He laid the infant back on his changing table and opened the closet door. "Let's get you out of the Orangemen crap," he said, reaching for a white onesie emblazoned with the University of Miami logo – one that he and Valera had given Nick.  
  
He changed the baby quickly and headed back into the living room, settling onto the couch. Horatio glanced over at him and swallowed a hard laugh. "He's gonna kick your ass."  
  
"Obviously, the kid's the lucky charm and I told you, I've got a lot of money riding on this game." Just then – a three point shot by Miami's Karron Clark was good. "See," Eric motioned to the set, "What did I tell you?"  
  
"Well, at least I don't have to worry about you writing your wife any more love notes," Horatio said.  
  
Tim stepped back into the living room with Nicholas' bottle, ready to feed his son. He stopped and stared at the sight of his precious son, sitting on Eric's lap, quite happily decked out in a white onesie with the UM logo. "Very funny," Tim sneered, snatching Nick off Eric's lap.  
  
"I needed a little luck," Eric shrugged, just as Miami scored again. "And obviously it's working."  
  
Tim glared at Eric and settled into his recliner. "If they take the lead, I'm changing him back."  
  
"I don't know why you like Syracuse so much anyway, you went to Columbia," Eric reminded him, shoving a dip-covered chip into his mouth. "Christ, H, you made this shit." Eric choked the one chip down, then sat his plate back on the coffee table.  
  
Tim shrugged. "Same reason Leanna loves the Bulldogs even though she went to Yale. It's tradition, a pride in where you come from."  
  
"That and the fact that Columbia and Yale have shitty basketball teams," Horatio quipped, choosing to ignore Eric's insult.  
  
"Well I didn't want to bring that up," Tim answered with a laugh, "But yeah, that could be part of the reason."  
  
"They're back," Eric sang out, hearing the car doors slamming in the driveway. The women laughed all the way up the walk, relaxed from the massages and glasses of champagne they had treated themselves to.  
  
"Hi, baby," Leanna cooed, striding across the living room to lift Nicholas from Tim's lap. She peppered kisses over the infant's face. Tim swatted her bare leg playfully. "I'm sitting right here," he reminded her.  
  
"Hi, my other baby," she teased, leaning over to kiss him.  
  
"Thank you," he answered, "Now sit down or get out of the way." Leanna rolled her eyes and sat down in Tim's lap, resting her head against his and cradling Nick on her leg. "What is he wearing?"  
  
"Blame Eric." Tim and Horatio answered in unison.  
  
"Yeah, but now I'm winning," Eric clapped his hands, pulling Valera onto his lap. "And my other lucky charm is here. This game is over, Speed."  
  
"Change him back," Tim whined to Leanna.  
  
"Oh, okay," she grinned, rising from his lap and carrying Nicholas back into his nursery.  
  
Calleigh was in the kitchen, scooping cheese dip onto her plate. She took a bite, then immediately spit it into her napkin. "HORATIO! What happened to the dip I made this morning? This is awful!"  
  
"It burned," he answered, not taking his eyes away from the television screen. Miami was now up by six points. "I had to start over."  
  
Calleigh groaned, tossing the paper plate and it's contents into the trash. "The burned stuff was probably better than this," she complained quietly.  
  
Leanna returned with Nicholas, quickly settling them both back onto Tim's lap. He strained his head over her shoulder, glancing down at his son. "That's not funny," he stated, pointing at his son, now clad again in the Georgia Bulldogs outfit he had discarded earlier that morning. "Are you trying to make me lose this game?"  
  
Time counted down quickly on the screen, with Miami still up by six points. "Three, two, one," Eric counted aloud, hugging his wife tightly. "I just made 300 bucks!"  
  
"Great, that's just freakin' great," Tim answered, shaking his head and sighing heavily.  
  
"Now who's taking it too seriously?" Eric grinned brightly.  
  
"Be glad my wife and kid are on my lap or I'd kick your ass," Tim shot back.  
  
"Well," Horatio said, rising from the couch and picking up his dishes and beer bottles. "I think it's time for Calleigh and I to go."  
  
"So soon?" Leanna asked quickly, hesitant for the party to end.  
  
Horatio smiled his famous half-smile. "My wife has had a massage and champagne. Yes, it's time to go home."  
  
Tim grimaced, "That's entirely too much information."  
  
Calleigh gathered her purse from the kitchen table and grabbed Horatio's hand with her green eyes twinkling. "I've had a LOT of champagne," she cooed in his ear.  
  
Horatio wrapped an arm around her waist while she traced the outline of his ear with her tongue. "Mmmm, leave your car here?"  
  
"Um-hum," she answered playfully, smiling brightly at him.  
  
"I think Val and I are going to go spend my money," Eric stated. "You ready?"  
  
"Yup, let me just grab my stuff," the brunette answered.  
  
"Everybody's leaving?" Leanna asked, with just a hint of a whine in her voice.  
  
"Well," Valera answered, looking at her watch, "it's almost Nick's bedtime."  
  
"So this is the way it's going to be from now on," Leanna frowned, handing Nicholas to Tim. "Everybody bails at eight o'clock because we've got a kid."  
  
"Cheer up," Calleigh said, leaning over to kiss Nicholas good-bye, "One of these days we'll all be bailing at eight to get our own kids to bed."  
  
"Yeah, yeah, yeah," Leanna responded grumpily, hugging both Valera and Calleigh. "We'll have to do this again, soon."  
  
"The Final Four is coming up," Calleigh grinned. "Them-tournament, us- shopping!"  
  
"Sounds like a plan," Valera offered as Eric took her hand and led her to the front door. "Night guys."  
  
"Night," Tim and Leanna said. Leanna shut the door behind them and tried to take a very sleepy Nicholas from Tim's arms. He pulled back just slightly and smiled. "Nah, I want to put him to bed. Finish out the day, just father and son."  
  
"Okay," she answered with a grin. "I'm going to go take a bath, get the rest of that massage oil off me."  
  
"Need some help?" he asked with a mischievously glint in his eyes.  
  
"Always," she responded, running a finger down his chest; then kissing Nicholas on the forehead. "Hurry."  
  
TBC, in the "R" section. Time to give Timmy a little lovin. 


End file.
